


Keith's Greatest Birthday Gift

by CarlottaStudios



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Happy Birthday Keith!, and hugs, just birthday softness, lots of mother/son feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 19:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21151127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarlottaStudios/pseuds/CarlottaStudios
Summary: Keith didn't think that his mother would forget his birthday, did he?





	Keith's Greatest Birthday Gift

As Keith expected, his mother Krolia went to greet him as soon as she alighted from her small Marmora ship and he was all too happy to reciprocate it. What he didn’t expect, though, was for her to immediately pull him into a hug, completely uncaring that the other paladins were present. Keith felt himself go a little warm. He wasn’t embarrassed by the hug, per se, and it wasn’t unpleasant. On the contrary, Krolia’s hug was warm and soft. It wasn’t too tight either, though Keith could feel that it would the force of a thousand galra sentries to pry her arms from around him. So, the hug wasn’t a problem. It was just a bit surprising that his mother would suddenly show such affection in front of everyone, and so Keith was caught a bit off-guard.

“Uhh, mom-?” he tried to ask.

But he was caught even more off-guard as Krolia said softly:

“Happy birthday.”

Keith started.

“You…You remembered?” he asked, pulling away to look up at her.

Her smile was warm and bright as a blue star. And her eyes, the eyes of a warrior hardened by innumerable battles, were soft and tender, the white pupils gleaming with joy.

“Of course, I remembered.” she said.

She ran a hand over his head and her smile widened with a hint of playfulness.

“Did you think I’d forget the happiest day of my life? When my son was born?”

Keith was speechless. He tried to think of something-anything-he could say. But his brain felt scrambled. He couldn’t think even think past the fact that she’d remembered. She’d remembered. She’d remembered his birthday. He blinked, suddenly becoming aware that his eyes were wet. His chest felt tight, like his heart was going to burst out of it.

“Mom…” he said, but his voice was so choked that he couldn’t manage more than that one syllable before he started crying in earnest.

But Krolia pulled him back into a hug, letting him cry into her chest so no one would see. Keith gladly nuzzled into his mother’s embrace as he wept with joy, with gratitude and with a storm of other emotions that swept through him like a whirlwind. Krolia patiently held him, gently stroking through his hair as though grooming a distressed kitten, and as Keith’s breaths slowly evened out, she nuzzled the top of his head soothingly.

“Better?” she asked.

Keith’s voice still refused to work, so he just nodded. He felt her smile, but noticed the tiniest hint of sadness in her voice as she said softly:

“I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything.”

This made Keith smile. At last, he puts his arms around his mother and hugged her back, a tight, loving squeeze.

“Don’t be.”

Then he smiled up at her, his face and eyes still shining from the tears.

“This is the best birthday gift ever.” he said, his voice cracking a bit, though whether it was from crying or from the sheer joy he felt, he couldn’t say.

Because this was the greatest gift he could ever receive, something that, until he’d met and gotten to know and connect with Krolia, he never thought he’d get to have: a mother, a genuinely loving mother who cared about him enough to remember his birthday.


End file.
